


our fate is a twisted labyrinth maze

by dal_segno



Series: tokyo ghoul but make it minron. [1]
Category: NU'EST
Genre: (i think thats how you tag it?), Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Tokyo Ghoul, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempt at Humor, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hide!Minhyun, Inspired by Tokyo Ghoul, Kagune (Tokyo Ghoul), Kaneki!Aron, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mentions of Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, Permanent Injury, Scarecrow!Minhyun, Shironeki | White-haired Kaneki Ken, Tokyo Ghoul Spoilers, Tokyo Ghoul: re, beta read but we still die like kaneki almost does on multiple occasions, graphic depictions of injuries, please stop me from writing istg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28855935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dal_segno/pseuds/dal_segno
Summary: The mangled human clicks his tongue. “Well, you kissed me first. Then started apologising for lots of things I never bothered to remember because you didn’t need to apologise for them. Then you proceeded to devour half of my face.”“And you just let me?” Aron gapes at Minhyun’s relaxed, almost bored face. The younger shrugs.
Relationships: Hwang Minhyun/Aaron Kwak | Aron
Series: tokyo ghoul but make it minron. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120940
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	our fate is a twisted labyrinth maze

**Author's Note:**

> HI! I should probably stop writing fanfiction when I have school but turns out that when I'm stressed, I write fics... Anyways, here's a Tokyo Ghoul (:re) MinRon AU no one asked for for y'all to read! The title is a modified lyric from Oneus' song [ Incomplete ](https://open.spotify.com/track/1ev8ks8q7qCLlB2syWPLCe?si=9VE46_cYR4CkKCKQd-bpsg) from their new album, DEVIL! There's also a few footnotes for Tokyo Ghoul terms! I hope you enjoy reading!

“It’s been a while,” someone says from behind Aron, “My One-Eyed King.” The wind blares in his ears, almost drowning out the voice entirely. He doesn’t have to look behind him to know who it is.

“Minhyun,” Aron whispers— _begs_ like a prayer. “Don’t— don’t come any closer.”

From the corner of his eye, he can see that soft, brown hair move with the wind. Almost absentmindedly, Aron moves his hand to his own hair; one that’s turned white over the past four years. He idly wonders what Minhyun has to say about it: would he joke about how old he looks like he did when they were just university students? What else would he have to say about everything else?

Aron doesn’t want to know.

He’s _terrified_ of knowing.

Minhyun speaks up, louder this time to fight the cursed wind. It sounds strained, like he can’t talk at all but tries to anyway. Stubborn was a trait Minhyun never grew out of no matter what.

“Why not?” There’s a challenging tone to his voice. Aron almost lets himself smile at the small resemblance of this Minhyun to the Minhyun of the past. He holds back, even when his back is to Minhyun anyway. His legs dangle over the edge. “Can’t I see my best friend?”

_Don’t,_ Aron warns himself when he feels his left eye tense, _Don’t you fucking dare do anything to him. Count._

And the monster inside him counts. All the way to a thousand, and back. Then in intervals of 7. It tires his mind out, but keeps the creature contained. In less than a minute, Aron’s managed to collect himself again.

“Have you seen me? I’m not him anymore. I’m not your best friend anymore.” Aron cracks the knuckles on his right hand. The sound reverberates across the rooftop like gunshots. He notices that Minhyun doesn’t even flinch unlike when they were younger, only taking a couple of steps towards Aron. Even steps.

“That’s the point,” Minhyun deadpans. “I haven’t seen you in, what? Four years? Three, if you count the time you saved me from the raid—”

“You were at Pleiades?” Aron cuts in between. He snaps his neck to look at Minhyun fully. A bandana is tied to the younger’s neck, though it doesn’t seem like it’s just for fashion. A sick feeling pools in Aron’s empty stomach.

“Yeah, dumbass,” the human jests, “You saved me. But you also kinda tore out half my face and neck—”

Scrambling to get to Minhyun, Aron trips halfway through the roof. The brunet giggles half-heartedly before closing the distance between them. He crouches to meet Aron on the ground and motions for the ghoul to stay seated. Sighing, Minhyun unravels the bandana from the back of his head, revealing horribly marred skin and a sliver of bone in his jaw. Aron bites down on his lower lip to keep it from trembling.

“I… I did that— this— to you?” Minhyun’s fox eyes droop a bit. Aron really doesn’t want him to nod, surely Minhyun’s just joking and his prince-like face just has a fuck ton of makeup to fuck with Aron. Last he checked, it was October. No reason why Minhyun wouldn’t engage in a fun little trick-or-treat, right?

Except, the blistering cold encompassing the two of them here on the roof certainly doesn’t scream _October_ as much as it screams _December_ . Has Aron been _that_ out of touch?

“Yeah, hyung.”

Aron’s heart— or whatever’s left of it in this monstrous body of his— jumps to his throat. “No, no, no! I couldn’t have! Not to you! Fuck, why?! Why were you there in Pleiades? Why can’t I remember?!”

Minhyun says nothing, choosing to carry Aron’s hand to the damaged part of his face. If the ghoul pretends just enough, he couldn’t even see what he’s allegedly done. He almost deludes himself into thinking Minhyun’s perfect face hasn’t changed at all. That he’s just as handsome as before. Almost. 

It’s realer than it looks. Dry and shriveled, with some bone sticking out in places. Minhyun’s neck isn’t any better; part of it is hollow and the remnants of skin under his chin don’t even feel like skin anymore.

Aron feels sick. Sicker than the first time he turned into this freak hybrid. Sicker than the first time he bit into human flesh. Sicker than any moment in time he’s hated himself.

Tears start to pool in the corners of Aron’s eyes, to Minhyun’s surprise as well as his own. He thought he’d forgotten how to cry after the whole… centipedes ordeal. He was so sure that every last drop of _Aron_ was squeezed out of him then, considering he hasn’t felt like his old self since. The tears drop into Aron’s lap, bright and so uncharacteristic of him. Then they don’t stop flowing.

Like a small waterfall, Aron’s tears just keep falling into his hands. Minhyun pays no mind to this; holding Aron’s callused hands in his. Centuries fly by as the ghoul and human sit together on the crumbling rooftop. Bless his soul, Minhyun doesn’t ask or pry— he just hums their favourite song in a low tune. It’s not quite as smooth— his voice— as it was four years ago, before all of this happened. His vocal chords must’ve been damaged badly if he struggled this much to sing the easier parts. The sick feeling rises in Aron’s throat again.

“I’m sorry, hyung,” Minhyun offers once Aron’s pathetic sobs die down at last. Aron isn’t given the chance to ask about it before Minhyun talks again. “For many things.”

Aron furrows his eyebrows together. “I should be the one apologising. Not you, Minhyun-ah,” he mumbles softly, eyes still cast downwards.

“Then apologise if you’re so hung up on it,” the human insists. “Apologise for leaving me in the dark. And say nothing more.”

“If you insist.”

“And I do.”

Aron tries cracking a smile at the younger, hoping that it doesn’t come off as an unsightly scowl instead. “I’m sorry, Minhyun-ah. For— for never telling you. For not coming to our hangouts. For hiding and hurting you. I’m sorry for so much more but—” Minhyun cuts off his apologetic spiral with a finger to his lips. He smiles, albeit a little lopsided and strained with his damaged muscles.

“But I won’t let you. Because you don’t need to apologise for being you. Ghoul or not, I lo—”

The ghoul cocks his head to the side. Minhyun continues after coughing for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he reiterates. “I should’ve made it clearer I was on your side, hyung. That whether you were human or a ghoul, I’d still be your friend. Someone you wouldn’t have to hide from. Maybe things would’ve turned out differently.”

“Maybe. It’s a little too late to change what I’ve done now though.”

Silence lingers between the pair for a moment. Seoul’s city lights burn brightly in Aron’s eyes; he’s not used to so much light now. He rarely even comes to the surface from the ward’s makeshift bunkers during the day because of his eyes. The biting wind nips at his face, freezing his tear-stricken cheeks. It doesn’t last for long though. Not until a warm hand (Minhyun’s, Aron’s tired mind fills in for him) cups one of his cheeks.

Their bodies move towards each other on instinct, closing the distance between them. Before they know it, their lips touch, soft and desperate all the same. It seems to say everything neither has the strength to say out loud. Apologies on Aron’s part; reassurances on Minhyun’s. The world disappears around them in the moment, as if letting them have their privacy.

The pull away eventually, ragged breathing filling the air around them. Minhyun’s eyes disappear into crescents. Aron tries his best to keep his eye from acting up and scaring Minhyun away. He can’t have him go away from him again; four— three years were enough.

“Why were you at Pleiades, Minhyun-ah?” Aron asks quietly. Minhyun flinches at the mention of the old cafe. Eventually he eases into a comfortable position next to Aron. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“I went there to confront you and your whole ghoul thing,” Minhyun admits, not taking his eyes off of Aron’s face. “I was hoping you’d tell me some time, but you didn’t. So I went to Pleiades, hoping to catch you and tell you I don’t mind. To get you to listen to me for once.”

“But you got caught up in the raid.”

“I did,” he mumbles sadly. “Too many things were happening at once. I first heard glass and porcelain shatter upstairs. When I blinked, the cafe was on fire and I couldn’t move. Then, you carried me to wherever we ended up.”

Minhyun carries on after coughing again. “It was an abandoned warehouse back in the 20th ward. I could tell you weren’t in your right mind at the time: your eye was just like your eye right now.” Aron automatically slammed a hand onto his eye at that. Softly laughing, Minhyun tells him it’s okay. “I’m not scared of you, Aron-hyung. I think it’s kind of pretty anyway.”

Leave it to Minhyun to say a monster like Aron is pretty. “You have an odd view of beauty.”

“And so do you, considering my face right now. Yet you still kissed me.”

Aron could only stare at Minhyun’s face, unable to tear his eyes away from what he’s done. “What did I do to you, Minhyun-ah?”

The mangled human clicks his tongue. “Well, you kissed me first. Then started apologising for lots of things I never bothered to remember because you didn’t need to apologise for them. Then you proceeded to devour half of my face.”

“And you just _let_ me?” Aron gapes at Minhyun’s relaxed, almost bored face. The younger shrugs.

“I couldn’t really do anything. If I tried to push your stupid face from me, you’d bite off my hand. Even if I had some sort of weapon with me, it’d only agitate you more. I only hoped my injuries didn’t kill me by the time the CCG1 treated me.”

Minhyun tilts his head to look at Aron. “Besides, you carried me all the way to the officials so I didn’t have to wait long.”

Aron winces at the memory. “It was only because I thought you were dead.”

“And here I was thinking you carried me bridal-style because you wanted to be romantic to somehow make up for almost killing me.” A wild blush spreads across Aron’s pale cheeks. Minhyun rolls over in laughter.

“But yeah,” Minhyun continues when he stops laughing, “That’s what happened. You probably only remembered carrying me because you basically ate me. And hey, you asked me if you could eat me before doing it.”

“Why did I have to be so weird?”

Minhyun grins. “Well, at least I have a story or two to tell our kids if I plan to traumatise them.”

“Hwang Minhyun,” Aron mutters slowly in the wake of an awkward silence, “Is this your way of proposing to me?”

“O-only if my favourite ghoul would allow for it,” Minhyun stutters out. The tips of his ears turn a bright shade of pink.

Aron smiles the biggest, most genuine smile he’s had in years since turning into a ghoul at Minhyun. For a moment, he feels like he deserves this little moment of happiness in his bleak life.

“I’d love to, once I’m done with all of this,” the white-haired ghoul gestures vaguely to Seoul. “One must finish what they start, after all.”

“Then I’ll be here,” Minhyun declares proudly even as his voice starts to fail him, “waiting until you’re done. Then you’ll marry me, right? You always told me you’d marry me if we’re thirty and still haven’t found anyone yet.”

“I’m well aware of my own age, thank you very much,” the older man bickers back. Minhyun sticks out his tongue, or manages his best to, at Aron like a child. Aron finds his lips back on Minhyun’s again, not wanting to say more or hear more from the other. It proves effective: Minhyun shuts up and Aron doesn’t have to worry about fucking up his words as much.

If Aron’s going back to the labyrinth of fate without knowing if he’ll ever make it out, at the very least he’d like to have something, or someone, to wait for him. Something to look forward to, if you will. Aron hasn’t had anything to look forward to in the years following his transformation from a shy university student to a chained down ghoul to a fake CCG officer to just _Aron_ right now. He’s just happy to have something to work towards, even if it means risking his life just to get there.

-

Minhyun trails the ghoul flesh and muscle that forms this intricate maze with a hand. It seems to respond almost instantly to his touch, shivering and tensing before settling at last. The investigators2 told him it was too dangerous for a human, an injured human, to jump into the maze to find Aron. They told him that the maze wasn’t sentient; it attacked without a second thought. To preserve its owner and captive, Aron.

Well, Minhyun never took warnings too seriously.

And besides, he’s not dead yet, right?

The labyrinth twists and turns at odd places, Minhyun notes. Remnants of Seoul’s urban systems appear in areas the kagune3 doesn’t bother to cover. Electrical lines, concrete, scraps of cars. He keeps walking, not having the time to analyse anything. The investigators can do that later if they want.

The kagune seems to guide Minhyun through the maze. Whether instinctively or otherwise, Minhyun doesn’t know the reason. When he’s at a dead end, the flesh maze twists itself and regroups in another direction, letting the human continue on his journey. It doesn’t even seem to mind when Minhyun leans on a wall of muscle or uses a small mound of it to fix his shoes. Awfully friendly for something that’s already killed a handful of the CCG’s manpower.

Could it be him…?

Considering Aron and his penchant for dramatics (seriously, only a drama queen like him could be called the “One-Eyed King” and make it work), it wouldn’t be too far off the mark.

One final turn brings Minhyun to Aron at last. He silently thanks the kagune for helping him reach its owner, however odd and mutated it is. A conversation with Aron on what the fuck he did to have his abilities mutate this much is due after he takes him home.

Aron looks like he’s floating. A single kagune muscle holds him up from the ground as his body limps against it. Minhyun takes care moving around the muscles strewn across the ground; these ones look softer than the ones making up the labyrinth.

When he finally reaches the dying ghoul, he only smiles and whispers right into Aron’s ear.

“Let’s go home, hyung.”

**Author's Note:**

>   1. CCG: Commission of Counter Ghoul, was a federal agency in the Tokyo Ghoul series that serves as a criminal investigative body in cases connected to ghouls.  [▲]
>   2. A ghoul investigator is a specially trained professional employed by the Commission of Counter Ghoul. They are tasked with the investigation, pacification and elimination of ghouls to protect the civilians of Japan (or S. Korea in this fic) from any potential harm caused by ghouls.  [▲]
>   3. A kagune is a ghoul's predatory organ and functions as their weapon and claws. Aron's kagune is extremely mutated here, which is why it forms a maze across Seoul.  [▲]
> 

> 
> Should I continue to write Minron for this AU? As in, a series or something? Idk, but if you wanna see more of tokyo ghoul!minron then feel free to say it in the comments <3
> 
> Here's my [ twitter account ](https://twitter.com/nuestpop)! Maybe drop me a comment or a kudos? Thanks!


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